CITIZENSHIP REVOKED WITHOUT COURT

SAN FRANCISCO - Federal officials don't have to go to court
before revoking an immigrant's citizenship for failure to disclose
past crimes or arrests, says a federal appeals court.

Friday's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a
judge's nationwide injunction last year that protected more than 4,500
naturalized citizens from administrative revocation of their
citizenship by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein of Seattle said in her July 1998
ruling that the INS's authority to revoke citizenship without going to
court was in serious question.

But the appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, said a 1990 law that
authorized the INS to grant naturalized citizenship contained the
implicit power to revoke it. Before 1990, only the courts could grant
or revoke citizenship.

Jonathan S. Franklin, a lawyer for the immigrants, said he would ask
the full appellate court for a rehearing.

"Citizenship is among a person's most cherished rights," he said.
"This is the first time any court has ever held that the INS may take
that right away on its own, without going before a judge."

INS spokeswoman Elaine Komis said the agency had not seen the ruling
and would have no comment.

Most of the immigrants face loss of citizenship for allegedly failing
to disclose past arrests in their citizenship applications. Franklin
said the INS has contended that virtually any arrest must be disclosed.

For example, he said, one of the nine lead plaintiffs was arrested for
investigation of possessing a marijuana plant that was actually a
fern. Another was arrested on a minor charge, got the case dismissed
and was told by the judge to treat it as if it had never happened.

Congressional critics have accused the INS of lax citizenship testing
that has allowed numerous criminals to slip through.

After a 1997 audit found errors in numerous cases, the INS identified
more than 6,300 cases of possible fraud and had reviewed 4,450 by the
time of the injunction last July. Of those, revocation notices were
issued in 2,722, and the other 1,908 were cleared.

The notices had led to final action in 61 cases, of which 16 resulted
in denaturalization and the rest were cleared or withdrawn, the INS
said.